Though COVID-19 has interrupted almost every aspect of daily life, customer service organisations have been expected to offer uninterrupted support. Social distancing and store closures have caused consumers to flood support centres with questions and requests that are increasingly difficult to resolve, due to the technical and practical challenges of remote call centre operations.
It’s never been more important to be able to offer self-service options that help customers get what they need. It’s also never been easier to implement advanced self-service solutions thanks to Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs). IVAs are powered by artificial intelligence and use the latest speech technologies to automate simple and increasingly complex customer requests over voice, chat and messaging channels.
Here, we explore some key reasons your self-service strategy should include chat and messaging IVAs, and how to implement them effectively.
The pandemic has accelerated digital engagement
Callan Schebella
The importance of “meeting customers where they are” has been well documented, and there’s no question that more of our daily lives are taking place online – from virtual classrooms to telemedicine.
According to McKinsey and Company’s COVID-19 US Consumer Pulse Survey, consumers have been adopting and intensifying digital behaviours such as online shopping and entertainment streaming during the pandemic. And they “exhibit strong intent” to continue those behaviours beyond the current situation.
Chat and messaging channels will be a natural choice for customers who might be researching potential purchases on their laptops or checking account balances on a smartphone. Plus, COVID-19 has brought increased attention to the low-friction user experience and 24/7 reachability of chat and messaging IVAs, as agencies like the World Health Organization and the CDC have deployed them to help consumers get critical health and safety information.
You can enhance your customer experience with proactive service
The ability to automate outbound notifications to your customers via SMS or messaging apps such as WhatsApp offers many key benefits, especially in the current climate. IVAs can help businesses manage call centre demand by quickly deploying messages to update customers about delivery delays, new operating hours or changes in service. They can also allow your service organisation to provide a more proactive service experience, which is increasingly important to customers. According to the most recent Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report, 51% of consumers now expect companies to anticipate their needs, and 62% expect companies to send personalised offers or discounts based on items they’ve already purchased.
Consider how a hair salon, for example, could delight customers by automating an outbound message that includes their reopening date and an opportunity to automatically book an appointment via text. Knowing that customers will be more conscious of spending, the salon could also sweeten the deal with a relevant discount.
Additionally, automating regular outbound surveys can help your business stay in tune with your customers as market conditions evolve.
Chat and messaging can help you reach new customers
Mckinsey’s survey also found some interesting generational trends around consumer sentiment during COVID-19.
- Gen Z remains the most optimistic age group, with 47 percent reporting confidence in the economy
- The shift to online channels is being driven primarily by millennials and higher-income consumers
- For millennials and higher-income consumers, online discretionary spending continues to rebound for personal-care products, food takeout and delivery, non-food child products, and skin care and makeup products
Businesses that want to appeal to these younger, higher-spending consumers will need to embrace chat and messaging because 68% of millennials/Gen Z prefer digital channels over traditional ones, according to Salesforce’s research.
Additionally, messaging applications, WhatsApp in particular, have exploded as the channel of choice in India, Latin America and Europe. In February, WhatsApp announced that the messaging app is now being actively used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. Emerging markets such as Africa and South Asia also tend to favour WhatsApp because the local mobile providers are often not very reliable. With worldwide penetration and rich media features that allow users to send images, videos, PDF files and GIFs, WhatsApp will be increasingly important for engaging with younger and international customers.
A message of caution
Though chat and messaging are important self-service channels, it’s critical to remember that what customers really want is a user experience that allows them to get the service they need using whatever channel is most efficient and convenient.
Chat and messaging will be used by a customer if they are more obviously available and easier to access than other forms of contact. But if a customer suspects that they are not moving toward a useful outcome, they are likely to think poorly of the overall experience. Chat and messaging applications should be fully capable of escalating to a human agent as required and be able to pass on the context of the digital interaction so that the customer feels that using those channels was worthwhile in the first place.
To ensure all your engagement channels add value to the customer experience, consider the tasks your customers may be trying to accomplish and how you can make them effortless. Look for omni-channel IVA solutions that allow you to build a self-service application once and deploy it across voice, chat and messaging channels. This approach will allow your applications to share back-end resources (datastores, payment gateways, etc.) that enable them to remain “contextually aware” as a customer switches between channels or escalates to a live service rep.
With these capabilities, you can deliver a self-service experience that sends a strong, positive message about your brand.
Guest Blog by Callan Schebella, CEO at Inference Solutions
Callan is the CEO at Intelligent Virtual Agent solutions provider Inference Solutions and is based in the Austin office. He has worked his entire career in Voice Automation, Machine Learning and related technologies. Callan started his career at Telstra Research Laboratories in technology commercialization. Prior to becoming CEO at Inference Solutions, Callan was the Chief Architect and led the team that developed the company’s core products.
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